Please correct me if I am wrong, but it was my understanding that the budget for home-assisted care was being cut dramatically.

Someone deciding to spend their last days at home would probably need some kind of care (unless the children and spouses are able to take care of the terminally ill). Was Kennedy at home with just friends and family or did he have a nurse tending him?

i think the only thing in the alanis song that was truly ironic was the aviophobic guy who gets in a plane crash, and that's only because plane crashes are exceedingly rare. all the rest of her anecdotes are merely unfortunate. i guess the biggest irony is that a song about ostensibly written about ironic situations doesn't seem to know what one is.

Well I literally feel stupid for not knowing who Ann Hulbert is, and ironically, that her counterintuitive post randomly appeared around the blogosphere yesterday. Now, who is the shameful Hanna Rosin?

Additionally, I must commend you, baseballhead, for your brave defense of the English language. The widespread misuse of the word "ironic" has led me to question my own sanity on several occasions. "Does ironic really mean what I think it means?" I ask myself, particularly when people whose intellect I otherwise respect use "ironic" to mean anything from "coincidental" to "slightly odd" to "[insert a range of adjectives here]."

I'm pleased to see that someone else has noticed this linguistic abuse. It's nice to know I'm not alone. Now, if we could collectively lead a crusade against the misuse of the word "random"...

For the sake of full disclosure, I acknowledge that I'm a humorless curmudgeon.

This makes me smile. The thought process seems to be:
"Senator Kennedy's healthcare experience was by all accounts outstanding...which is why there's no need to reform the system to have a public option that would allow ordinary Americans to buy into the same health-insurance plan as Senators like Ted Kennedy."